Sequential State – the comics criticism archive of Alex Hoffman

Month: January 2018

  • Review: Berserker #1, ed. Tom Oldham and Jamie Sutcliffe

    Review: Berserker #1, ed. Tom Oldham and Jamie Sutcliffe

    (Update 2/25/18: I have been notified by Tom Oldham that all of the stories told in Berserker are are not fiction, but are entirely true. Please excuse this oversight in the review below. Thanks!) Breakdown sent a copy of their new sci-fi anthology Berserker in the Fall last year, and I’ve been slowly piecing my…

  • Review: Unmagical Girl, vol. 1, written by Ryouichi Yokoyama and illustrated by Manmaru Uetsuki

    Review: Unmagical Girl, vol. 1, written by Ryouichi Yokoyama and illustrated by Manmaru Uetsuki

    I read a lot of manga, but I don’t tend to write about it – that’s a problem, and one of my goals for Sequential State in 2018 is to review more manga.  I’ve been trying to catch up with some recent manga releases, and Unmagical Girl #1 caught my eye after seeing a quick…

  • Review: The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parrish

    Review: The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parrish

    Tommi Parrish is one of my favorite rising cartoonists. Their work in NOW #1 was a highlight of the anthology, and their comic Perfect Discipline and Unbending Loyalty was one of my favorites of 2017. It seems like a lot of Tommi’s work is coming out all at the same time, but they’re back with…

  • Review: Cartoon Clouds by Joseph Remnant

    Review: Cartoon Clouds by Joseph Remnant

    Fantagraphics sent over a few new books in the Fall and I’ve been slowly working my way through them. One that I’ve been stewing over for a while is Joseph Remnant’s debut graphic novel, Cartoon Clouds. Remnant did the illustration work for Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, and is  anthologized in NOW #2. Cartoon Clouds is a…

  • Quick Picks #9: Crumbs, Dreams, and Birds

    Quick Picks #9: Crumbs, Dreams, and Birds

    Quick Picks is an occasionally written series of microreviews of books I’ve read over the past two weeks. Here’s a selection of books I’ve been thinking about over the last two weeks. Reign of Crumbs by Glynnis Fawkes Glynnis Fawkes’ latest comic Reign of Crumbs from Kilgore Books is a collection of brush pen drawings…

  • Review: Astra: Lost in Space V. 1 by Kenta Shinohara

    Review: Astra: Lost in Space V. 1 by Kenta Shinohara

    Astra: Lost in Space is one of the books that runs on Viz Media’s website in digital – chapters of the book are up online to read, and are pulled down when the printed edition comes out. At the end of the year, the first volume of Astra: Lost in Space was released in print,…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2017: The Complete List

    Here’s the complete list of comics that challenged me in 2017. You can find links to the write ups for the list below: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List | What is a Glacier?, Sophie Yanow, Retrofit Comics River Sonnet, Madeleine Witt, self-published Anti-Gone, Connor Williamson,…

  • Comics That Challenged Me in 2017: Part 4

    Today is the final installment of a four part list of comics that challenged me in 2017. Here are links to the first part of the list, the second, and the third. The full list will be published shortly after this post goes live. Links to the rest of the list: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List | I’m…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 3

    Today is part 3 of a 4 part list of comics that challenged me in 2017. Here’s a link to the first part of the list and here’s the link to the second. This part of the list has a few more books I’ve already reviewed, but part of the reason I reviewed them was because…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 2

    Today is part 2 of a 4 part list of comics that challenged me in 2017. Here’s a link to the first part of the list. Hope you enjoyed the first installment! Links to the rest of the list: | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Full List | Language Barrier by Hannah K. Lee; published by Koyama Press Hannah K. Lee’s…

  • Comics That Challenged Me In 2017: Part 1

    It’s been an annual tradition at Sequential State to run a series of articles, microreviews really, that are built around a list of comics that challenged me in that calendar year. This list is a list of books that challenged me as a reader, although the definition of challenge is nebulous, and the only requirement…